2013-03-17 - Family Affairs: Hot Dog Hijinx
So through whatever detective skill she has, she discovers the Hot Dog Vendor was named Douglas Fanetti - an Italian immigrant. He has no know family, but a little apartment in the Bronx. You get an address for it. Kara Zor-El heads to the apartment, sighing a bit. Sort of relieved that she doesn't need to explain it to family. She's Supergirl and someone got killed when she was right nearby. Practically under her nose. She's not sure how to excuse that. She listens to hear if there are any heartbeats inside, trying to respect privacy in case there IS anyone in there - a girlfriend or something maybe. If she hears anything, she'll knock. She hears nothing. Kara Zor-El looks through the door with x-ray vision and, assuming no one's inside, she focuses a hairline stream of heat vision at the keyhole lock. It's something Batman actually taught Kara that she could do with her heat vision - ironically considering Batman doesn't even have heat vision. Once the pin is melted, she turns the knob to open the door. Breaking and entering a dead man's apartment - that's just wrong, Kara. Still, she wanted to see if she could learn anything about the guy she failed to save. She closes the door behind her The door is opened. The place is a wreck, Douglas wasn't a very good house keeper. The living room dedicated to the hot dog vending business. His kitchen too, a giant freezer where he kept his research. His bedroom is trashed with stacks of books and papers. There's a stack of books in front of a closed closet door. The bathroom is the cleanest place here, and it was recently cleaned by the smell of it. There is a hint of Pine sol in the air. Kara Zor-El blahs as she looks around, seeing if there's anything she can bring to the morgue for them to bury with the guy. She heard it's customary to do that with some cultures on Earth. She flips through a couple of books, then heads over to the freezer and idly opens it. The Books are advanced physics text books, hi end stuff. There are Notes on Nuclear Theory, something about Plutonium 17-B, apparently he been researching it. There is some airplane ticket stubs in a book a trip to India, a few countries in AFrica, and the Middle East. The Freezer just has hot dogs and buns in it. Kara Zor-El closes the freezer. Then looks back at the books. Hrm, actually aren't those sort of ... complicated subjects on Earth? She flips through them again. Weird that someone who not only read about nuclear physics but also wrote notes on it (which Kara looks over) would be a hot dog vendor. Then the airplane stubs. Kara gets a sinking feeling that the hot dog vendor may have been doing things involving items that were distinctly un-hot dog-related. She pauses and looks around the apartment with all manner of microscopic and electromagnetic vision looking for any trace evidence. Especially the uncharacteristically clean bathroom. The bathroom is just clean nothing out of the ordinary. If you got to have one place of order in your life the bathroom it is. While scanning around she does find something Odd, the boxes in front of the closet door in the bedroom. That closet has a sophisticated lock system on it, and it appears to be booby-trapped with something, if the lock is triggered. Kara can't tell what kind of trap but she can tell that is hooked to the door lock. There's a weird energy signature that registers in her vision as a black shield. Kara Zor-El should really listen to Batman. He's said that if someone is going to attack her, they'd do it strategically, not directly - given her powers. So when you see a closet locked and the door booby trapped, and the energy signature is one which is specifically seemingly tailored to block her x-ray and electromagnetic vision through means that she doesn't know about.... don't go and open the door. Since if someone can figure out how to bypass her vision, it's not inconceivable that they might know how to hurt her. And Kara's had enough of people using Kryptonite on her as 'tests.' In fact, Batman once actually put a lead lined box in her apartment specifically to teach her that lesson. Inside the box was a note that said 'mistake.' Batman's a freak sometimes. She moves around to the wall, making figuring instead of triggering the booby trap on the door - just go through the side of the closet wall. It's just sheet rock, or at worst plaster or brick. So, checking it with her x-ray vision, she sends a fist through the wall to bypass the booby-trapped door entirely The bobby-trap is delicate set to the electronic door knob. THe kicker is that yes she could punch through the sides, but that could cause a vibration that sets off the booby trap. Of course if she can figure away to get through the lock, maybe she can disarm the trap. If Kara is so skilled. Kara Zor-El stops before she is about to punch the wall, realizing that maybe just punching her way through would be like using a sledgehammer where a scalpel is better. Fortunately, she thinks of another route. If it's electronic, which it seems to be, then ... She takes breath, and blows her freeze breath at the door, encasing it in ice. Then, using her hear vision she cuts a small opening in the door so she can cut it like a laser without burning the whole apartment down. And without triggering... whatever it is that's in there. That is acceptable..the lock and the black shielding is disabled, plus the Booby trap, and the door swings over to where we find a sophisticated computer system. A Beehive Suit like AIM wears, and a flag for HYDRA hanging in the back. There are files and paperwork all around. Files and photos on Asia for the last few years from the moment she was placed in Central Park, pictures at parties and other events that Stark had with his Niece, outing to Ice cream, pictures inside Xavier's institute. Among the equipment is a small cellphone sized device hooked to the laptop. All sorts of information here, mostly surveillance on Asia and her contacts, stuff from Muir Island, her time in England, this fellow ha been tracking and reporting on her for a very long time. Kara Zor-El frowns with confusion. So the hot dog vendor, who was killed by AIM agents, was an AIM agent himself? She looks over at the Hydra flag. Maybe she can take this stuff to someone who could explain what it all is. Then she remembers that jerk of a SHIELD agent who ruined her Valentine's Day for that 'super important SHIELD mission' which turned out to be feeding a cat. He owes her - at least now she has an excuse to 'visit' the SHIELD helicarrier over New York City. Best to not bring the field generator to them though. That she'll take to her place to study it - maybe see if Cyborg can figure anything out about it if she can't. She gathers up all the paperwork and files together, along with the 'AIM beehive suit,' the laptop (maybe Oracle or that Stark person will know what to do with that), and last of all, takes the field generator device. "This is getting too freaky." she says to herself, noting that there are pictures even inside places that are xenophobic to the extreme, like Xavier's. Uh oh! Once taking the device, lights on it starting to flash..they get faster and faster, if Supergirl had Super-sense she'd get out of there ASAP. Asia says, "I am just giving the storyteller's nudge that whatever you do you might want to get the stuff out first." Kara Zor-El superspeed removes the evidence she recovered from the apartment, just in case the very stupid thing she's about to do doesn't work - then back into the apartment in a blur to try to contain whatever the device is about to do by crushing it in her hands and bracing any potential explosion with her body, given that she figures from the rate of flashing that - even if she throws it - it might not be thrown far enough to minimize damage if it's a big explosion. The device lets out a high pitched pulse that shakes Kara to the core as she tries to crush it. Then a flash of blinding purple light emits through the entire apartment. Once the flash is gone there is no sound, just Kara standing in an apartment, that looks similar but not exactly like the one she entered. This one is cleaned and ready to rent it seems. Also Kara's clothes are also missing, hopefully she has a spare in the pocket dimension. Unfortunately, Kara does not. Kara Zor-El says, "so everything in the house except for herself was either teleported away or obliterated?" Asia says, "MIssing or replaced, there not evidence of obliterated, but I know she'll scan it has the same signature as underground with Tony where you found Asia's shoe" Kara Zor-El pauses as she stands in the now empty apartment. Then looks at herself. "Crap." she murmurs. Everything else is gone in the house. The books, the untidy stuff, the device itself, the freezer, even the smell of disinfectant in the bathroom. And her favorite shirt! And jeans! AND UNDERWEAR! Again, she says "Crap." Then superspeeds out of there, hoping that as she streaks (no pun intended) through the sky across the city to her apartment as fast as she can. She already roamed naked through a city on Earth ONCE when she first came to this planet. Once back at her apartment in Metropolis, she looks over at Streaky (again, no pun intended!!!) and says, "Don't you say a word, Streaks...." as she trudges over to her closet to get new clothes, putting the stuff she gathered from apartment down.